Seattle police relent on recruits and smoking pot

Updated 2:55 pm, Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Seattle Police Department is not about to issue bongs to new recruits along with a badge and gun.

But it is easing off restrictions on past marijuana use of those who apply to become cops.

The department had disqualified candidates if they had smoked marijuana within three years of applying. This week, the department changed that to one year.

Initiative 502, which voters approved in November, has promped the change. The initiative, which went into effect Dec. 6, legalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

The department announced the policy change Tuesday. Police Chief John Diaz asked for a review of hiring in light of the new pot law. And that resulted in Tuesday's announcement.

The department will continue to re-evaluate other marijuana-related hiring practices in the next year, it said.

"We are deciding to take a much more worldly view of our applicants," Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said in a statement.

"In light of the changing cultural and political landscape, the three-year rule does not make sense," Assistant Chief Dick Reed said in the statement. Reed oversees police hiring. "We're trying to find a middle ground that doesn't exclude viable candidates."

The pot question doesn't come up often. Police say fewer than 5 percent of the 500 people who applied in November to be officers were disqualified over marijuana use.